What Could Have Been
by MagicDreamer0630
Summary: Post Phantom Planet - When Danny Fenton reversed his ghost powers, he was left with a stripe of purest white-what would have happened if it remained in his Human form, and its inverse in his Ghost form? AU, DP/OC, rated for language
1. Preface

**Every decision has an alternate ending—every alternate ending includes its own timeline. Thus is the Strings Theory in it's simplest terms—or, at least, the way I learned it.**

CLOCKWORK'S DOMAIN—GHOST ZONE—AFTERNOON

"_Danny!_"

Clockwork watched expressionlessly as the majority of Daniel Fenton's enemies zapped him simultaneously with ectoplasm. When the boy began to glow with the power, Clockwork froze time.

He determined that the little ghost energy left within that stripe of seemingly harmless white hair had reacted—it would either spread its power to the rest of the boy's system and return humanoid, or it would start the process and, using the surplus energy around them, combine into the boy's former Halfa appearance.

Clockwork examined the two alternate timelines carefully—the latter seemed to have virtually no harm to it whatsoever. Powers regained, the boy would rally the ghosts and save earth—and, by extension, the Ghost Zone—from the Ectoranium asteroid.

The former, however…It seemed dangerous—Clockwork would need to keep a wary eye on it. Perhaps even as wary an eye as the timeline with Dark Dan. If one of the frequent visitors of Amity Park were to truly find a way to obtain a Host…

That decided, Clockwork gave the Halfa an extra boost towards the latter timeline and returned to his domain to watch the other timeline.

The two were identical at first—but where Samantha Manson and Daniel Fenton got together in the chosen timeline, they didn't in the alternate. Where Daniel Fenton and Danny Phantom were exposed as the same being in one timeline, the world remained oblivious to this fact in the other. Where Vladmir Plasmius was banished in one timeline, he returned to the ghost zone in the alternate. Where Daniel seemed unchanged in the chosen, he became almost unbalanced in the alternate—for that simple stripe of different colored hair seemed to be more important than first examinations.

It seemed that through that stripe of purest white, the Human side of Daniel became stronger—and through the stripe of darkest ebony, the Ghost side of Daniel became weaker. By the time Daniel Fenton was twenty years old, he would no longer require a transformation to access his Ghostly Half—the two would have merged into one entity.


	2. Minions of Music

**DANNY PHANTOM IN:**

**Minions of Music**

_THUNK toc _catch._ THUNK toc_ catch. _THUNK toc_ catch. Olive eyes glared at blue rubber, never leaving the ball as it hit the wall loudly, bounced off the tile floor, and straight into her hand.

"Aunt Tillie's not gonna like it if you break something," Leo warned lightheartedly as he browsed through a more-empty-than-not refrigerator. Mina scowled but said nothing, continuing to hit the same part of the kitchen wall. She didn't want to _break_ anything—just a nice little dent would suffice.

It's not like they were going to stay here, right?

Right?

"Damina, put that darn thing away and come help me with the boxes! Leo, if you stand in front of the fridge any longer you'll melt everything!" Both siblings shared a look of slight annoyance before reluctantly heading back into the driveway. The large U-HAUL was still more full than not, despite the swarm of people that had come to help them move in. Mina didn't recognize a single one—not that she expected to, as she hadn't been in Amity Park more than a few days.

She and her brother were sent off to live with their Aunt Matilda after their dad got a job transfer somewhere out of the country. Rather than him going off on his own, their mom decided to go with him—as her entrepreneur status allowed her to work anywhere in the world—thus leaving the two teens just short of stranded in the little town known for frequent ghost attacks.

Mina shivered behind her stack of cardboard boxes and shouldered the door to her 'new room' open. She _hated_ ghosts—as far as she was concerned, they didn't belong here and they never would.

Dropping the box with a bit more force than needed she returned outside, surprised to see a large metal-plated RV pulling up to park straight in Aunt Matilda's half-dead rose bushes. Three rather unwilling teens that looked about her age, a large man in an orange jumpsuit, a shapely woman in a teal jumpsuit, and an older teen girl that looked about Leo's age got out of the RV and headed towards Matilda.

'_Great,_' Mina scoffed inwardly, '_new recruits._' Had she been paying more attention she probably would have noticed that the box someone had slid towards her was labeled "BOOKS—HEAVY," and would have therefore called her brother back from shamelessly flirting with aforementioned new arrival his age to help her. Alas, Mina was left to grab the box around its center alone, hoist it with probably more force than needed, and suddenly feel the force of the box's weight as she began to fall backwards.

Olive eyes widened in panic as she tried to sort out what the hell she was going to do—she didn't know anyone around her, her brother was looking the other way, and her aunt was too weak to even bring in the lighter boxes. She was just about to tip backwards all together when three pairs of hands rushed to her aid—the aforementioned new arrivals her age had apparently seen her struggle and rushed to help.

"Th—thanks," Mina bit her lip, suddenly feeling really stupid for not seeing the big, bold label. "You okay?" The girl of the trio asked. Mina smiled, "Yeah, fine. I guess I should pay more attention, huh?"

The group adjusted so that they each had a corner of the rectangular box and began to shuffle inside. The silence awkward, Mina spoke up, "I'm Mina, by the way."

"I'm Sam."

"Danny."

"Tucker."

Sam was the girl—short, straight black hair, purple eyes, and an obvious love for the gothic look. Danny was the raven-haired boy on Mina's right, a stripe of pure white in his messy hair and eyes a brilliant shade of blue. Tucker was the darker skinned boy with glasses and a red cap on backwards.

"So, uh—where to?"

"Up here," Mina shifted so that she was facing forewords and led the way to her room, kicked the door open, and led the box onto her bed. She stretched her back with a sigh of relief, only to catch Danny staring worriedly at the guitar behind her. "Where did you get that?"

"Aunt Matilda found it in the attic—apparently it belonged to whoever lived here last. She knows I like to play so she gave it to me. Why?"

"Look; I don't know how much you know about Amity, but—"

"You mean the fact that there's basically a portal to some Twilight Zone somewhere in town and that's why it's constantly under ghost attack?" Mina interrupted with a raised eyebrow. Tucker gave a nervous laugh, "Okay, so maybe she does know."

"Listen, Mina; there's a really powerful ghost that that guitar belongs to. I think you might be in danger."

Mina looked from face to face, refusing to believe it. "You're telling me that this harmless instrument has some magical ghostly powers? I've been playing this thing nonstop since we found it—I seriously doubt that." But the trio still remained uncertain. Sighing, Mina gently picked it from its stand, "Would it make you feel better if I proved it to you?"

A wary exchange of glances. Danny nodded, so Mina plopped to the floor and strummed once to make sure the thing was in tune, "Any requests?"

"Something short?"

Nodding once, Mina closed her eyes before strumming a few more times to find the right chord.

**So I won't give up, no I won't break down**

**Sooner than it seems life turns around**

**And I will be strong**

**Even if it all goes wrong**

**When I'm standin' in the dark I still believe**

**Someone's watchin' over me.**

Danny, Sam, and Tucker all exchanged another glance as Mina turned to replace her guitar. "You've got a great voice," Sam complimented. Mina blushed, but before any could say more something flew in through the window and hit the latter in the side of the head. "OI! Stop stalling and haul the rest of your crap up there, will you?" Leo hollered.

Mina leaned out to stick her tongue out at her brother before closing the window, "Well; considering nothing happened other than usual, I think it's safe to say it's not haunted—right? You guys'd be the judge of these things."

"Seemed pretty normal to me," Danny agreed. Tucker jerked a thumb towards the door, "We should probably bring up the rest of those boxes."

"Right—thanks for your guys' help."

"No problem—hey, maybe we could catch a movie or something afterwards?"

"Maybe, sure."

~THISISACOMMERCIALBREAK~

That night found Danny suddenly swamped with ghosts—box ghost, Johnny 13, Skulker, and many more of the persistent ghosts—and unable to question Ember's motives as he had hoped. Had the Halfa actually been ghost free, he would have found out that Ember was, in fact, acutely aware of the goings on regarding her guitar.

Or, rather, her guitar as it was before her death.

And as Danny finally managed to corner Johnny 13 and suck him into the Fenton Thermos somewhere on the other side of town, Ember entered what was once her room, but was now Mina's bedroom.

Mina sat at the edge of her bed, hunched over the guitar of purple and blue as she strummed away in time to whatever was playing through her headphones. The song seemed to have ended rather abruptly, for once Ember had settled invisibly to watch, the human girl had sat up with a rather exaggerated strum, paused her mp3 player, and stilled the strings.

As Mina looked around, Ember wondered vaguely whether the human knew of her presence, and had stopped because of it. Mina didn't show any signs of it, however, for she merely set the guitar down and pulled out a small, portable amp from one of the boxes. Ember relaxed for about five seconds before she suddenly recognized all too well the song the human was attempting to play.

Mina struggled through the correct chords, the sudden need to play whatever it was she was playing taking hold. Invisible still, Ember's flames grew steadily from their original short nub into a full ponytail of flaming hair as the song progressed, grin growing. Unbeknownst to either girl, Clockwork watched from his scrying mirror in his domain as Ghost and Host created their Bond.

The human girl got through the song once before her mind was suddenly flooded with words. Words that _needed_ to be spoken, that _needed_ to be let free.

So she sang.

**Yeah, o-o-o-o-o-oh**

**It was, it was September**

**Wind blows, the dead leaves fall**

**To you, I did surrender**

**Two weeks, you didn't call**

Danny stopped short mid-pursuit of another ghost as he heard a familiar voice singing equally familiar words. "Oh no—Mina!" Ghost forgotten, the Halfa raced towards the house in question, hoping he wasn't too late.

**Your life goes on without me**

**My life, a loosing game**

**But you should, you should not doubt me!**

**You will remember my name.**

Before she could finish, Mina was suddenly tackled to the ground. The guitar hit the floor hard and caused the amp to static loudly as the chord was pulled.

But Danny was quickly on his feet before the fallen girl, glaring about the room, "I know you're in here, Ember. Show yourself!"

"What the hell, dipstick?" It was Mina's voice that spoke, from Mina's body, but there was no way the girl would have ever called him that. Danny turned to see Mina standing and dusting herself off. Her short bleached hair glowed an eerie blue-green, Ember's signature flame ponytail hovering above the human girl's head. Her normally olive eyes now glowed a fierce purple as she glared at the Halfa. "What did you do to Mina?"

"She did it all on her own, baby pop," Ember grinned easily, testing out her Host's body, "She played my song willingly, and now she's my Host. Whatever you do to me you do to her as well." Danny watched Ember call ectoplasmic energy into Mina's hands worriedly. There was no telling what sort of effects this would have on her body…

Danny suddenly had the wind knocked out of him as Mina's leg swiped his feet out from under him. He crawled out of the way of the first blast of ectoplasm, quickly cornering himself. "Face it, baby cakes, there's nothing you can do." Ember sneered, leaning over so far that she was all but straddling the boy. She raised a hand to eye level, letting the green glow light up the two of their faces—his fear and her smirk. "Say buh-bye, dipstick!"

The light suddenly faded as Mina's body staggered back. A flash of olive streaked through her eyes, "No…don't hurt…Danny…" He watched the struggle as Mina fought against Ember, eyes a wild swirl of purple and olive. She looked at him worriedly. "Go…" Danny hesitated. "GO! Run! While there's still—"

Purple took over once more, Ember's flames peaking in strength as the guitar sailed into her outstretched hand. She growled and turned one of the dials towards the skull-shaped notch, and Danny quickly turned intangible and fled.

~THISISACOMMERCIALBREAK~

"What do you mean, you're going back?" Sam exploded angrily. Danny resurfaced from a cardboard box, Fenton Thermos in hand, "Sam, I have to. Who knows what all that ectoplasm is doing to Mina?"

"How do we even know 'Mina' exists? For all we know, it was Ember all along."

"Wouldn't my ghost sense have gone off?"

"Not if she was Hosting." Sam and Danny turned towards their techie friend. Tucker still hadn't looked up from his PDA, tapping the screen occasionally as he spoke, "I looked into it. Apparently, if a human gets a hold of something that was very valuable to the ghost when they were still alive, the human becomes bound to the ghost as their Host. If the bond is formed, the ghost can overshadow the human and, in a sense, have their own body. But the longer the ghost and human stay together, the weaker they are when they're apart. Also, with Hosting, the ghost has full access to their original powers, but are really difficult to detect unless you know to look for the difference."

Danny shook his head, "No, she looked different when Ember had her. She had Ember's flames and her eyes were purple, not green."

"That's a little weird, isn't it?" Tucker pondered, "Aren't most ghosts' eyes green?"

"Maybe…since her original eye color was a shade of green…they changed to something else?" Sam suggested with a shrug.

"Maybe…" Danny agreed, securing the thermos onto his belt. "Alright, here I go…."

"Be careful, dude."

With a final nod Danny left, flying quickly towards Mina's house. He hadn't gotten far before he heard the music—something fairly heavy on guitar with a sort of remix feel to it. The tune itself he recognized from one of Tucker's older videogames, but as far as he recalled it never had any words to it—or such a bitter, almost heavy-metal feel for that matter.

The guitar stopped as soon as Danny returned into the room on full alert. Mina's back was to him, flaming ponytail nowhere to be found, and somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered when Mina had changed into a striped one-sleeved tank top and spiked gloves that seemed to belong to a Batgirl costume.

"…Mina?" the moment he'd spoken the flames ignited, lighting the otherwise dim room. Mina's head turned as she stood. "Sorry, baby pop," Ember sneered, turning to face the boy, "Looks like you've got the wrong number."

The girl's purple eyes were accented with thick eyeliner reminiscent of the ghost guitarist, lips painted charcoal. What Danny had originally assumed to be a new shirt was, in fact, the same one Mina wore previously—Ember had merely cut both sleeves and the left strap in a style reminiscent to her original outfit. The gloves were elbow-length and, indeed, originated from a Batgirl costume—for Danny could see the yellow-on-black emblem sticking haphazardly from one of the upturned boxes throughout the room. She wore the same pants, but had switched out her classic converse with a pair of boots that also echoed the ghost's preferred attire.

Ember shifted her grip on the guitar, "Like what you see there, dipstick?"

Snapped from his reverie Danny slid into a battle stance, "Let Mina go."

"She started this, baby pop. She found the guitar, she played the song. She created the Bond. You hurt me and you hurt her; you hurt her and you hurt me. There's no stopping it." Mina's body jumped into the air and floated out of the room to the roof, Danny in hot pursuit. Ember made the first move, striking a ghostly chord on the pink-and-teal guitar.

Danny dodged through the seemingly endless barrage of attacks, looking for an opening. If the guitar was the key, then all he had to do was take it away…right…?

Seeing no way around it, the Halfa shot a beam of ectoplasm at the girl. It nicked her shoulder and broke the strap of the guitar, sending the instrument falling off the side of the two-story house. "No!" Though the cry emanated from one mouth, Danny could have sworn he could hear both Mina's and Ember's voices cry out.

Danny caught the instrument easily and unclipped the thermos with his free hand, "Let Mina go or the guitar gets it."

Olive took hold of the purple despite the flames still floating above the girl's head. "Danny, you don't understand. You harm the guitar and both of us could disappear. Forever." Purple returned, "Chick's right, dipstick. This is a whole lot bigger than some simple overshadowing." And then it was a color to an eye—left purple and right olive. Once more, both voices spoke through the single mouth, mingling into some sort of surreal harmony, "Please."

"Get out of Mina and we'll figure it out," Danny stubbornly persisted, though he cradled the guitar a bit more carefully. Mina's eyes closed as she collapsed into a sitting position, flames floating a few feet away to materialize into the ghost guitarist. The Halfa raced to the human's side, guitar still in hand, "You okay, Mina?"

"Peachy." Mina bit out between clenched teeth, holding her head. "Unless we're counting the fact that I've just been bound to a being I didn't even allow myself to consider real, fought tooth and nail as said being destroyed _my favorite shirt,_" an angry glare in Ember's direction, "and am now currently stranded on a _very high_, very _dangerous_ location with absolutely no recollection as to how I got up here. One minute I'm playing my guitar, then suddenly I suddenly see myself standing over you about to blow you to smithereens, and next thing I know I'm up here seeing you dangle that damn guitar off the edge of the building. I got this really panicky feeling, like if anything happened to that I'd cease to exist or something." Mina paused her rant to look up at the boy, "So; mind telling me _why_ you've got inverse hair and a jumpsuit on?"

"I—uh…" Danny hesitated, thankful for Ember's rather put-out cleared throat. He slid into a battle stance, but faltered when he felt Mina's hand in the crook of his elbow. "I'll handle this," Mina grabbed the purple-and-blue guitar and walked towards the ghost she'd bound to.

"You're Ember McLain," Mina began carefully. Ember raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "This was your house, and your guitar—you died here, didn't you?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

"You had just found love—but he used you, didn't he?"

Green eyes locked gazes, neither backing down.

"I understand, Ember. 'To you, I did surrender. Two weeks, you didn't call.'" Mina continued cautiously, quoting the song. "I know you had a bad past…" she grabbed the ghost's hands in her own, looking intently in the rockstar's eyes, "but that doesn't mean you have to have a bad future. We have a bond, and I'll accept it—on a few conditions. You cannot attack anyone through me. You cannot block me out—I need to be able to know what's going on at all times. And you can't just raid my stuff like that!"

Danny watched, shocked, as the hardcore and headstrong ghost melted into a warm smile before disappearing with an echoing last verse.

**You will remember my name…**

Mina smiled and collected the forgotten Fenton Thermos. Danny turned to fly off, only to be stopped by the girl's seemingly innocent warning. "Not so fast, _Fenton_, you still owe me an explanation."

"Fenton? I do not know who this Fenton is, ma'am, I am Danny Phantom!" Danny puffed his chest out in his Hero bravado, only to have the thermos shucked at his head. He caught it easily and flew off with a salute, allowing himself a quiet chuckle at the girl's yell of "YOU COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, DO YOU HEAR ME, DANNY PHANTOM? I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU CALL YOURSELF OR WHO YOU THINK YOU'RE FOOLING, GET. ME. _DOWN!_"

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE—PLEASE READ!**_

**So I have NO idea where to go with this. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be more than willing to hear them! Even if it's just some catchy title idea—ANYTHING HELPS, PEOPLE! I've bolded and underlined this in the hopes that people will actually read this, because unless people help me out I'm calling this a one-shot and being done with it.**


End file.
